Japan News for January 22, 2007

A few Japan-related news / links for this morning:

• TV entertainer Sonomamma Higashi, who ran as an indepedent in the Miyazaki Prefecture govenor’s race, has won the election, defeating a ruling bloc-backed rival and three others in a result unlikely to cheer Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ahead of a national election in July.
• Millions of Japanese baby boomers will retire en masse this year, and some may go home to find divorce papers waiting for them. From 1 April, new regulations will entitle a woman to up to half her husband’s pension after divorce. It is a change that may well tempt more older women to leave their husbands and start life anew.
• Yokozuna Asashoryu put the finishing touches on his 20th Emperor’s Cup with an emphatic win over Kotooshu on Sunday, the final day of the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament.
• Japan and China are planning to increase their military exchanges as bilateral relations continue to warm, according to a Nikkei Shinbun report.
• Top Japanese television executives have abjectly apologised for airing a programme based on fabricated data that sparked a run on natto — sticky fermented soybeans — at stores across the country.
• David has translated an article regarding plans from Hirado, Nagasaki, to introduce various whale meat items to menus in the region’s tourist facilities.
• Yale University Professor Aaron Gerow comments on the state of the Japanese film industry in 2007.
• North Korea on Saturday accused Japanese ruling party of trying to amend the statement on “comfort women,” saying such action reflected Japan’s intention to shirk its responsibility for past crimes.

Evening Update:

• A Japanese fishing boat carrying six crewmembers was seized in disputed northern waters between the two countries, the Japan Coast Guard said Monday. There was no immediate report that the boat had been fired upon or that any of its crew had been injured.
• Japan will ask international tuna conservation organizations this week to join forces on curbing the use of large encircling nets, government sources said Sunday.
• Producers of natto, a strong-smelling food made from fermented soybeans, have found themselves in trouble due to cancelled orders that came after a television station admitted it falsified data in a “natto diet” program.
• Aiful Corp. said it would halve the number of outlets and cut more than 10 percent of its workforce, the latest consumer lender to embark on a major restructuring amid mounting legal costs and tighter regulations on interest rates. Japan’s consumer loan firms have faced a flood of demands to repay interest charges deemed illegal by courts. The charges were levied on loans with rates set at between 20 and 29 percent, a grey zone between two conflicting lending laws.
• The Fukuoka High Court in southern Japan on Monday overturned a lower court’s ruling that ordered the Nagasaki city government to pay compensation to the relatives of Choi Gye Chol, a South Korean A-bomb victim. The deceased plaintiff was visiting Nagasaki when it was bombed in August 1945 during World War II and returned to South Korea after the war. The Japanese government granted him eligibility for benefits in 1980 , however he was soon denied compensation because of rules requiring recipients of compensation to live in Japan.
• The Japanese government decided to repatriate the remains of 140 Korean soldiers and civilians who died in Japan during World War II, a Japanese newspaper reported Friday. The Dong-A Ilbo has covered the issue under the headline, “We Mass Cremated Koreans”: Japan, with a more harsh take on the news.
• Shigeru Hiyama, an avid collector of works related to the American-Japanese author Lafcadio Hearn, has donated a large number of papers from his personal collection to several academic institutions. If you haven’t heard of Lafcadio Hearn, I suggest you check out some of his great writings, which are now available free on the internet.